In the mountains

I apologize for my absence.

Vacations are a wonderful things.

Yes, they tend to be too short. But, we must not dwell on the negatives of getting away. The positives are much more fun to talk about.

I spent a week as a sponsor at The Wilds, a Christian camp for kids from grades 4-12, in Rosman, North Carolina.

Our church, Colonial Baptist (yes, the burned one) sent 17 youths along with our youth paster, Scott Abercrombie, and Nicole Kendall, another sponsor, for the 11 (ish) hour drive each way.

What a brilliant week.

Kids met other kids from different states and different backgrounds.

Kids met other kids with different slang and different accents.

Kids got to be kids.

They were on teams -- The Red Tape Party (red), the Blue Moose Party (white) and The Lame Duck Party (blue).

They competed. They sweat. They won. They lost.

And, yes, the most important thing, they were preached to, mostly by two Godly men (and brothers) Matt and Mark Herbster.

These kids (and us adults, too) were challenged on how they live and will live their lives. They were challengd on their choices in and out of school and in and out of church.

They were challenged on the music they listen to, the stuff they watch and the friends they hang around with.

There were 1,153 people at camp that week -- high school kids, junior high kids and kids in grades 4-6, along with us sponsors.

That doesn't count all the counselors (one per cabin of six or seven), all the workers and all the kids in C.I.T. -- Counselors In Training.

It was a brilliant week.

It was a week ALL teenagers, and adults, should experience.

We were all challenged to do right all the time, which is not the easiest thing to do. We were challenged to be held accountable for our actions, our word, our talk.

We learned that we all fail spiritually and it's our job to get right back up and go forward, even though Satan wants to to continue to lie down and feel sorry for ourselves.

We learned our walk is louder than our talk.

We learned we want to go back next summer.